rebozo

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

n. A long scarf worn over the head and shoulders chiefly by Mexican women.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. A woman's garment of Mexico, a rectangular piece of fabric worn as a scarf or shawl and sometimes used to carry children or goods.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

n. A kind of mantilla worn by women over the head and shoulders, and sometimes over part of the face.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

n. A shawl or long scarf worn by Mexican and other Spanish-American women, covering the head and shoulders, and sometimes part of the face, one end being thrown over the left shoulder; a kind of mantilla. Also written reboso, rebosa, and ribosa.

Examples

I look at the face of Tawakkol Karman wrapped in what we in the Spanish-speaking tropics would call a rebozo, and I see a riff on the face of the Virgin of Guadalupe, she who adorned the banners of the Mexican Revolution 200 years ago.

In their full long skirts and bare feet, and with the big dark-blue scarf or shawl called a rebozo over their womanly small heads and tight round their shoulders, they were images of wild submissiveness, the primitive womanliness of the world, that is so touching and so alien.

Their dress consists of a white cotton under-dress, a coloured cotton skirt, generally blue, brown, or grey, with some small pattern upon it, but never brilliant in colour, and a rebozo, which is a small sober-coloured cotton shawl, long and narrow.

"It's really going to be a chance to come and learn about some Mexican culture that you may not know ... or learn about someone's family history," says Tucson Museum of Art spokeswoman Meredith Hayes, who admits that she didn't quite know what the word "rebozo" meant until she saw a picture of one.

A popular piece of Mexican culture-especially to Mexican women-is finally getting its day in the spotlight at the Tucson Museum of Art. You may not be familiar with the word "rebozo," but you have most likely come across this popular Mexican garment and have seen it worn by women in the Southwest: Woven from fine silk, cotton or other materials, rebozos are traditional Mexican rectangular shawls with knotted and fringed ends.